"We can
keep it on the down low... Nobody has to know... Secret
lovers is what you wanna be... What is a man to do in a
situation like this? I feel there is something that I
don't wanna miss."-R
Kelly Song Lyrics

Downlow (or "On the Downlow" or "DL") may refer to any
activity or relationship kept discreet or private.
Generally, it may refer to any kind of infidelity,
extramarital affair, or covert rendezvous. Specifically,
it may refer to keeping an act or action hidden or any
piece of information a secret ("I'll tell you, but I
want you to keep it on the down low").

Downlow is sexual slang for men who are straight
(heterosexual), and identify as straight, but have sex
with men (often a friend) on the side without disclosing
the activity to their female partner.

Some men in heterosexual relationships have sex with
other men without the knowledge of their wives or
girlfriends. Often these men do not consider themselves
gay or bisexual.

The term has most often been associated with African
American men. Although the term originated in the
African American community, the behaviors associated
with the term are not new and not specific to black men
who have sex with men. There are reports of rural white
men who engage in downlow activity.

Often, downlow behavior occurs in settings and cultures
in which being gay is socially unacceptable or morally
taboo and fiercely prohibited. While the practice of
straight men secretly having sex with men is seen across
all ethnic groups, it appears to be more prominent in
communities in which traditional values are strictly
applied and rigid rules foster intolerance.

Men who have sex with men (males who have sex with
males), abbreviated as MSM, are male persons who engage
in sexual activity with members of the same sex,
regardless of how they identify themselves. MSM can
describe any men who choose not to accept social
identities of gay or bisexual. The term was created in
the 1990s by epidemiologists in order to study the
spread of disease among men who have sex with men,
regardless of identity.

MSM is often used in medical literature and social
research to describe such men as a group for research
studies without considering issues of
self-identification regarding sexual orientation.

Same-gender-loving, or SGL, a term coined for African
American use by activist Cleo Manago, is a description
for homosexuals and bisexuals in the African American
community. It emerged in the early 1990s as a culturally
affirming African American homosexual identity.

SGL was adapted as an Afrocentric alternative to what
are deemed Eurocentric homosexual identities (gay and
lesbian) which do not culturally affirm or engage the
history and cultures of people of African descent. The
term SGL usually has broad, important and positive
personal, social, and political purposes and
consequences.

In a 2004 study of African American men, most of whom
were recruited from black gay organizations, 12%
identified as same-gender-loving, while 53% identified
as gay. Men attending Black Gay Pride Festivals in nine
US cities in 2000 responded similarly, with 10%
identifying as same-gender-loving, 66% as gay, and 14%
as bisexual. Recent studies indicate that
African-American disadvantaged youths are less likely
than Euro-American youths to self-label as gay,
lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer.

The term AGL (All Gender Loving) is slowly being
recognized as well. AGL is a label for bisexual and
pansexual Black people. The word's origin is unknown,
though it is most commonly attributed to Black LGBTQ+
people who are active in gender/sexuality discussions
across social media.

The term "downlow" originated in the Black community,
and was originally used to describe "any kind of slick,
secretive behavior, including infidelity in heterosexual
relationships."

According to a study published in the Journal of
Bisexuality, "The Down Low is a lifestyle predominately
practiced by young, urban Black men who have sex with
other men and women, yet do not identify as gay or
bisexual."

In this context, "being on the Down Low" is more than
just men having sex with men in secret, or a variant of
closeted homosexuality or bisexuality. It is a
sexual identity that is, at least partly, defined by its
"cult of masculinity" and its rejection of what is
perceived as white culture (including white LGBTQ
culture) and terms.

A 2003 New
York Times Magazine cover story on the Down Low
phenomenon explains that the black community sees
"homosexuality as a white man's perversion." It then
goes on to describe the Down Low culture as follows:

"Rejecting a gay culture they perceive as white and
effeminate, many black men have settled on a new
identity, with its own vocabulary and customs and its
own name: Down Low. There have always been men (black
and white) who have had secret sexual lives with men.
But the creation of an organized, underground subculture
largely made up of black men who otherwise live straight
lives is a phenomenon of the last decade. Most date or
marry women and engage sexually with men they meet only
in anonymous settings like bathhouses and parks or
through the Internet. Many of these men are young and
from the inner city, where they live in a hypermasculine
thug culture. Other DL men form romantic relationships
with men and may even be peripheral participants in
mainstream gay culture, all unknown to their colleagues
and families. Most DL men identify themselves not as gay
or bisexual but first and foremost as black. To them, as
to many blacks, that equates to being inherently
masculine."

Author JL King has written three books about the downlow
phenomenon, most recently, "On the Down Low: A Journey
into the Lives of Straight Black Men Who Sleep with
Men."

Joe Moe, a critic for Amazon, submitted the following
review of King's latest book: The closer a secret is
kept, the more powerful the impact once it is finally
revealed. Such is the case with author and activist JL
King's intriguing look at the lives and lifestyles of
black men who sleep with other men but do not consider
themselves to be gay. These men live "on the down low,"
the "DL" for short, and their sexual activities have
gained significant notice as the rate of HIV/AIDS
infection in black women has skyrocketed, with the vast
majority of cases coming from heterosexual sex.

King is a veteran of the DL phenomenon himself and his
book serves partly as a social and psychological survey
of the other men he has surveyed and partly as highly
candid memoir. King was well regarded in his community,
popular at his church, successful in his career, and
married to a woman who had no idea that his secret life
existed. But when she caught him in a lie and with
another man, the marriage collapsed and King's long and
painful path to self-awareness began. King cites the
negative image many socially conservative black men have
of homosexuality as an obstacle to those men being
honest with their partners and themselves about who they
are.

Among the more intriguing elements of "On the Down Low"
are the peculiar approaches men on the DL have to the
sexual act, seeking a strictly physical sexual
relationship with their secret male partners while
remaining in more traditional arrangements with women.
Whether this discrepancy is a product of scrupulously
guarded secrecy and shame or the natural preference of
an understudied sexual identity is one of the numerous
questions raised by this book. Though the infection
statistics make the DL a huge public health issue, King
is neither a sociologist nor a medical professional. And
while a more clinical look at this issue would be
welcome, King accomplished what he set out to do:
provide light and insight into a world that so many have
worked so hard to keep in the shadows.